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Unreal Tournament (also called Unreal Tournament 4) was a First-Person Shooter, and the fourth installment of the Unreal Tournament series, also developed by Epic Games using the Unreal Engine 4. Unlike the past games of the franchise, the game used to be free to download and play.

The gameplay remained more or less the same as previous installments: a fast-paced arena shooter with extended movement options. This time, however, only the very basic gamemodes (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag) remained, with the additions of Blitz (an "Attack vs. Defense" gamemode which mixes aspects of CTF and Assault) and Team Showdown (a team-based elimination mode where items disappear after being picked, respawning at the end of each round). The arsenal was also extended with the incorporation of a Grenade Launcher/Mine Layer hybrid (the Rocket Launcher returning to single rocket/triple rocket modes of 2003 and 2004), and both the regular Minigun and its Stinger counterpart, as well as the Sniper Rifle and the Lightning Gun, shared weapon spots. As for the movements, the Double Jump disappeared, and in its place Wall-running and Crouch-sliding were added.

The game was available between August 2014 and January 2023 in a public pre-alpha state with little to no story information released in the Epic Games Store. Unusually, it was being designed in collaboration with the player base, who contributed to the game with maps, skins, and even gamecode until August 2017, the month the last update for the game was released prior to Epic Games focusing all their efforts into Fortnite: Battle Royale due to its unexpected success. Still, while the game was declared abandoned in the tail end of 2018, it was still available for play until in December 14th, 2022, Epic Games declared that the game will be unavailable to be played in its state from January 23th onwards.


This game provides examples of:

  • 100% Completion: Skill Tokens are scattered across the Tutorial maps and the gametype introduction maps. Collecting them all unlock achievements.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Doing well earns you experience and levels you up, but it only unlocks cosmetic upgrades.
  • The Artifact: Even though the mode was renamed to Blitz, the maps associated with the mode display the prefix FR-, short for "Flag Run", its previous name.
  • Ascended Extra: Samael was just an AI bot in Unreal Tournament III. Here, he's a fully fledged character, and one of the first Necris characters revealed for the game.
  • Auto-Pilot Tutorial: While the Advanced Movement and Weapon tutorials were interactive training courses, the tutorials for each gamemode (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Duel, Blitz and Team Showdown) still required you to sit through a video, with a common match of the gamemode following afterwards.
  • Back from the Dead: The Necris return for this game, with two released player models (Samael and Visse) having been subjected to the Necrification process.
  • Battle Royale Game: The Showdown mode, where two teams pick their spawn points and start with the usual Impact Hammer+Enforcer loadout. Items spawn in maps in their usual locations, and once they're picked, they disappear until the next round. "Team Showdown" is the team-based equivalent.
  • Capture the Flag: The game's version of the mode divides the match in two halves, with a half-time in between.
  • Character Customization: As with previous Unreal Tournament games, you can customize the look of your character. Unlike previous games, this takes the form of collectible player models, skins, and headgear.
  • Comeback Mechanic: The Overcharge item in (Team) Showdown spawns when there are 50 seconds left in the map. It grants the player a huge boost of health, a damage amplifier and extra movement speed. Let time pass, however, and the item will kill you.
  • Competitive Multiplayer: The game is composed entirely of competitive multiplayer modes, supporting Solo and Team Deathmatch, Duel, Capture the Flag, Showdown and Blitz.
  • Drafting Mechanic: Each round in the Showdown and Team Showdown modes start with the players on each team taking turns in order to choose a spawnpoint. In this case, the advantages can vary from just spawning near desirable items to surrounding nearby enemy players.
  • Expy Coexistence:
    • The regular Minigun and its Stinger counterpart from Unreal Tournament III share the same place in the weapon roster.
    • The Sniper Rifle and its replacement in the Unreal Engine 2 games, the Lightning Gun, can also be found on maps.
  • Le Parkour: Movement options are considerably expanded from past games, to the point where the very first tutorial level simply teaches you how to do things like slide, walldodge and wallrun your way around a map.
  • Microtransactions: In the form of skins and headgear for your characters.
  • Nostalgia Level: As other games of the Tournament part of the franchise, it features versions of Deck 16 and Facing Worlds. Earlier betas also used to feature Morbias.
  • Secondary Fire: Par for the course, but UT4 adds some tertiary fire modes not seen since Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, generally done by pressing one fire button while holding the other.
  • Stat Overflow:
    • The game features a rare, usually well-hidden item which gives the player 100 hitpoints called Keg O'Health that surpasses the standard cap of 100. The player, however, won't be able to pick up other healing items until their life meter drops below 100.
    • Health Vials can overheal at a rate of 5HP.
  • Storming the Castle: Blitz, previously called "Flag Run", is basically STC: The Game. It requires the attacking team to invade the enemy team's base and place their flag into the enemy team's flag spot.
  • Time Trial: The Movement and Weapon tutorials have par times for getting across them.
  • Travel to Projectile: The Translocator launches a beacon (with primary fire) that teleports the player on command (with alternate fire), but it may also be damaged by the enemy. Said module can be retrieved too, by using the primary fire after launching it. This game keeps the charge count to 7.
  • Tutorial Level: A complete Crash Course was developed for the game, introducing the player to the game's movement and weapon mechanics separately. These maps, as well as the gameplay introductory maps, have Skill Tokens scattered across the area.

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